Fallacies

fallacy is an error in reasoning resulting in a misconception, and possibly a false conclusion. A fallacious argument can be deductively invalid (a formal fallacy) or one that has false premises or insufficient inductive strength (an informal fallacy). Or the argument can be irrelevant to the issue being discussed.

A deductively invalid argument is one where the conclusion does not logically follow from the premises. That is , the conclusion can be false even if the premises are true. Thus a formal fallacy is fallacious only because of its logical form, regardless of its content.

On the other hand, an informal fallacy is fallacious because of its content, regardless of its form. An example of an informal fallacy is a conclusion that smoking does not cause cancer based on the anecdotal evidence of only one healthy smoker.

Here is a list of some of the more common fallacies, plus a few new ones. Also included are some confirmation biases and rhetorical tactics.

Formal fallacies

Informal fallacies

More fallacies are available at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

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3 responses to “Fallacies

  1. Hello Tim,

    I have just expanded one of the sections in the said post entitled “The Quotation Fallacy”. If you happened to be reading it now, please kindly refresh or reload it to see the latest version. Thank you.

    By the way, if or when you try to access my main blog, please be informed that it will benefit from being viewed on a large screen of a desktop or laptop computer, since those lengthy multimedia posts and my blog could be too powerful and feature-rich for iPad, iPhone, tablet or other portable devices to handle properly or adequately.

    Like

  2. Hi Tim,

    You have quite a good list of fallacies here. I appreciate your effort.

    Please be informed that I have a coined a new one: The Quotation Fallacy

    You are welcome to include this new fallacy in your list and to read the detailed discussion on this fallacy at http://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2017/10/18/the-quotation-fallacy/

    Like

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